Thursday, March 31, 2016

39 MONTHS

This has been a challenging month, mainly because I was hospitalized for a couple of days and even after I was discharged, I wasn't in a the best position to maintain the aquariums until these last few days.

The lucky thing was, everything pretty much remained fine but the first thing that I saw upon reaching home from the hospital was the sight of the Rose Bud Tip Anemone eating up my Purple Tang. This is the second Tang that I lost to this growing anemone! Naturally I was very upset but looking at the Purple Tang, I was convinced there was nothing I could do to revive it. So the big four of my aquarium is reduced to just 2 big fishes - the Regal Blue Tang and my all time favourite the Flame Angel.

Aquarium 1  (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
I cleared a large clump of the Chaetomorpha, which seemed to grow really really fast in this aquarium due to the high nutrients. Now the aquarium looked kind of empty, so perhaps I should stock it with more fishes soon. Looking at the attached photos, it looks really uninspiring.

The livestock are:
  • Fishes
    • False Percula Clownfish
    • 2 Fire Gobies
  • Invertebrates
    • Turbo Snails
    • Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
  • Corals
    • LPS
      • 2 Supersun Corals
  • Macroalgae
      • green Algae
      • Chaetomorpha algae
    The technical information is as follows:
    • Atman HF-0600 HOB Filter
    • Maxspect Razor Nano 60W (10,000K)
    • Tunze Nano Osmolator




    Aquarium 3 (3 x 1.5 x 1.5 feet and sump - 250 litres)
    I spent quite a number of days lying in bed, recovering from my medical condition and I started to read up on more reef stuff. For one, I am determined that the next aquarium I have would be a customized drop-off tank of perhaps 4 feet length. I feel really excited just thinking about it. I also read that Innovative Marine is coming up with a new series of small tabletop drop-off tanks soon, so perhaps I may just start with that first. I am also contemplating getting a new AI Hydra lighting in the near future.

    The monthly updated list of livestock is as follows:
    • Fishes
      • 2 Blue-yellow Damsels
      • Flame Angel
      • Regal Blue Tang
      • Orange Striped Prawn Goby
      • True Percula Clown
      • Golden Maroon Clown
      • Royal Gramma
      • Yellow Clown Goby
      • Yellow Wrasse
      • Yellow Tang
      • Percula Clown
    • Invertebrates
      • Turbo and Nassarius snails
      • 2 Tuxedo Urchins
      • Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
      • Golden Stenopus Shrimp
      • Fire Shrimp
    • Corals
      • SPS
        • Horn Coral
        • Poccillopora
        • orange Cyphastrea
        • Red Planet
        • red Acropora digitata
        • green Poccillopora - 2 frags
        • unknown green
        • 2 Radioactive Bird Nest frags
        • green Acropora digitata
        • 2 unknown Acropora
        • pink tabling Millepora
        • smooth-skinned deep water Acropora suharsonoi
        • red/brown Poccillopora
        • red Millepora
        • brown with blue-tip Millepora frags
        • green deep sea Acropora
        • Forest Fire Acropora digitata
      • LPS
        • Hammer Coral (purple green)
        • green Candy Cane
        • Duncan Coral
        • Fox Coral
        • yellow Torch Coral that turned green (left 2 heads)
        • Hammer Coral (light purple green)
        • Bubble Coral
      • Mushrooms
        • green Ricordea yuma mushrooms
        • red mushroom
        • green mushroom
        • blue mushroom
      • Soft Corals
        • Chilli Coral
        • pink Rose Bud Tip Anemone
        • Toadstool Leather Mushroom
        • luminous green Tree Coral
        • pulsing Xenia
        • cyan Tree Coral
      • Polyps
        • purple Zoas
        • Fiery Red Zoas
        • 5 assorted Zoas
        • 2 green Palythoa
        • 3 green Star Polyps
        • 2 Clove Polyps (2 gold)
        • pink Zoas
        • green base purple skirt Paly
        • green base brown skirt Zoas
    • Macroalgae (in sump)
      • Chaetomorpha
      • red Bamboo
      • green Bubble algae
      The technical details are:
      • Jebao Marine Aqua DC-6000 return pump
      • Maxspect R420R 16,000K 160W
      • Solite 2 x 24W T5 lights
      • Hailea HS-66A chiller
      • Skimz skimmer
      • Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor running Phosguard
      • Maxspect Gyre and RW-8 wavemaker
      • Tunze Nano Osmolator
      • Marine Magic Triplet Dosing
      I came back to witness the death of the Purple Tang.





      FTS under 100% white and 100% blue lights

      the right hand side



      the new Tuxedo Sea Urchin

      the deep sea green Acropora


      this Pocci has gone through a hard time in the past

      the A. suharsonoi and tabling Millepora

      the blue Acropora lost its colour

      red Millepora (left) and red Pocci (right)


      green Pocci

      I broke these into frags when it showed rtn


      true Percula Clown


      my favourite Flame Angel

      pulsing Xenia





      Tuesday, March 1, 2016

      38 MONTHS

      It's 2 months into the new year but nothing much happened this month because I was still kind of caught up with other stuff.

      Aquarium 1  (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
      I haven't managed to get the chiller for this aquarium, so it is status-quo for this aquarium and I won't post any photos.

      The livestock are:
      • Fishes
        • False Percula Clownfish
        • 2 Fire Gobies
      • Invertebrates
        • Turbo Snails
        • Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
      • Corals
        • LPS
          • 2 Supersun Corals
      • Macroalgae
          • green Algae
          • Chaetomorpha algae
        The technical information is as follows:
        • Atman HF-0600 HOB Filter
        • Maxspect Razor Nano 60W (10,000K)
        • Tunze Nano Osmolator


        Aquarium 3 (3 x 1.5 x 1.5 feet and sump - 250 litres)
        This month, I lost the Yellow Tang, one of my favourite solid colour fishes which added a beautiful yellow to the other bluish aquarium. I will not be replacing it for the time being because of the existing Purple Tang. The Rose Bud Tip Anemone is a threat to the other fishes now and measures about 8-10 cm across.

        Something happened to the doser, which I was totally clueless for a while, until I realized the water level in the dosing container didn't drop. Well, I managed to get it back up but the kH level has dropped really low. I measured it on 28 Feb 16 and it read 5.5, so I need to raise it to at least 8.

        The monthly updated list of livestock is as follows:
        • Fishes
          • Purple Tang
          • 2 Blue-yellow Damsels
          • Flame Angel
          • Regal Blue Tang
          • Orange Striped Prawn Goby
          • True Percula Clown
          • Golden Maroon Clown
          • Royal Gramma
          • Yellow Clown Goby
        • Invertebrates
          • Turbo and Nassarius snails
          • 2 Tuxedo Urchins
          • Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
          • Golden Stenopus Shrimp
        • Corals
          • SPS
            • Horn Coral
            • Poccillopora
            • orange Cyphastrea
            • Red Planet
            • red Acropora digitata
            • green Poccillopora
            • unknown green
            • 3 Radioactive Bird Nest frags
            • Bird Nest frag
            • green Acropora digitata
            • 2 unknown Acropora
            • pink tabling Millepora
            • Stylophora
            • smooth-skinned deep water Acropora suharsonoi
          • LPS
            • Hammer Corals (purple green)
            • green Candy Cane
            • Duncan Coral
            • Fox Coral
            • yellow Torch Coral
          • Mushrooms
            • orange Ricordea yuma mushrooms
            • green Ricordea yuma mushrooms
            • red mushroom
            • green mushroom
            • blue mushroom
          • Soft Corals
            • Chilli Coral
            • pink Rose Bud Tip Anemones
            • Toadstool Leather Mushroom
            • luminous green Tree Coral
            • pulsing Xenia
          • Polyps
            • purple Zoas
            • Fiery Red Zoas
            • 5 assorted Zoas
            • 2 green Palythoa
            • 3 green Star Polyps
            • 2 Clove Polyps (2 gold)
            • 3 Daisy Polyps (brown and 2 green eyes)
            • 15 frag plugs of Zoas
            • pink Zoas
            • green base purple skirt Paly
            • green base brown skirt Zoas
        • Macroalgae (in sump)
          • Chaetomorpha
          • red Bamboo
          • green Bubble algae
          The technical details are:
          • Jebao Marine Aqua DC-6000 return pump
          • Maxspect R420R 16,000K 160W
          • Solite 2 x 24W T5 lights
          • Hailea HS-66A chiller
          • Skimz skimmer
          • Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor running Phosguard
          • Maxspect Gyre and RW-8 wavemaker
          • Tunze Nano Osmolator
          • Marine Magic Triplet Dosing
          FTS




          I don't know if this tabling Millepora will make it 

          the pink Rose Bud Tip Anemone (top left corner)

          Acorpora suharsonoi (top right corner)

          top view of left side

          top view of center

          I switched off the pumps and the fishes thought it was feeding time



          they were all looking for food



          they were still not giving up








          the right side


          the new Sea Urchin

          the best SPS I have - Poccillopora

          the Clove Polyps and Green Star Polyps


          the luminous Tree Coral I bought from Taiwan has grown so much

          the yellow Torch Coral with a dead head

          the Yellow Goby on the Acropora suharsonoi